Case Notes
February 28, 2006
Highlights of the latest Product Liability cases from around the country.
Increasing Equipment Reliability
February 28, 2006
While we used to copy millions of pages a month and send out hundreds of overnight mail packages a day, current copying rates have dropped to a few hundred thousand pages, replaced by thousands of e-mails per day and "scan to PDF and print" jobs totaling millions of pages. With these advances in technology have come heightened client expectations to complete work in minutes or hours, rather than days. This means our equipment has to be very reliable and easy to use, allowing the attorneys to spend their available time focused on legal work, not on mechanical problems with scanners, copiers and printers.
Protecting E-mail For Complete Client Privacy
February 28, 2006
Attorney-client privilege, liability for breach of confidentiality obligations and damage to a firm's reputation were all reasons originally cited for stopping the use of e-mail at law firms before it even started. Convenience and responsiveness to clients became justification enough to ignore the basic issue that e-mail was inherently insecure. The standard form disclaimer that we now see at the end of every lawyer's e-mail became the solution to protecting the confidential nature of attorney-client communications. Is it sufficient today?
Strategies Needed To Support Compliance Policy Initiatives
February 28, 2006
Proactive Compliance. Risk Management. Loss Prevention. Regardless of what you call it, all firms have the need to assure that client information is handled properly at all stages, to mitigate litigation and penalty risks, and to protect client and firm reputation.
<b>Practice Tip:</b> Processing Evidence: The Technical Challenges of Lotus Notes
February 28, 2006
Lotus Notes, the desktop client for the Lotus Domino collaboration product suite, is one of the more widely used messaging platforms in large corporations. The unique aspect of Lotus Notes is that it's an application environment, as well an e-mail exchange system. It provides a platform from which to build a wide range of business applications where messaging and collaboration are the necessary foundation.
Lawyers Recruiting Mock Juries on the Net
February 28, 2006
After months of preparation, the lawyers at Sanders, Simpson & Fletcher had their case almost ready for trial. The Springfield, MO, plaintiffs' firm of 11 lawyers had worked hard to fine-tune the civil case. Their client had the potential of being awarded significant damages. But the allegation -- sexual misconduct against a church pastor -- was tricky. Would the facts of the case resonate well with jurors?
New Jersey's Highest Court Admits Expert Testimony
February 28, 2006
The New Jersey Supreme Court, in <i>Creanga v. Jardal</i>, 185 N.J. 345 (2005), recently held that a treating physician's expert testimony on proximate cause is admissible if based on a reasonably conducted differential diagnosis that rules out plausible alternative causes of a plaintiff's injuries. However, a treating physician's expert testimony will be struck as a net opinion when the physician's differential diagnosis is based on subjective beliefs instead of the patient's medical history and diagnostic testing.
Special Medical Malpractice Courts
February 28, 2006
In the midst of the medical liability crisis and a nationwide movement toward tort reform, including caps on non-economic damages, a new player has appeared on the scene. The "Fair and Reliable Medical Justice Act," S. 1337, was introduced to the U.S. Senate in July 2005 in a bipartisan effort led by Sens. Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Max Baucus (D-MT). The stated purposes of the Act are: "1) to restore fairness and reliability to the medical justice system by fostering alternatives to current medical tort litigation that promote early disclosure of health care errors and provide prompt, fair, and reasonable compensation to patients who are injured by health care errors; 2) to promote patient safety through early disclosure of health care errors; and 3) to support and assist States in developing such alternatives."
Verdicts
February 28, 2006
Recent rulings of interest.
